Today Is July 4th; And It's Time To Restore The 4th Amendment

from the join-in dept

Today is July 4th, and as mentioned, people are gathering around the country -- both offline and online -- to tell the government that it's time to finally start obeying the 4th Amendment again. If you click the image above, it takes you to CallForFreedom.org, a new campaign from Fight for the Future. You should also check out RestoreTheFourth.net, for details on local protests all around the country from people who believe in the 4th Amendment of our Constitution, and are worried that the government has decided to ignore it with its widespread surveillance efforts, led by the NSA and the DOJ.

Oh, and in case you want a somewhat more amusing look at the concept of restoring the 4th Amendment, we have everyone's favorite Taiwanese news animators, who always seem to have a way with making the news that much more entertaining:

We're taking today and tomorrow off from regular posting for the holiday, though we'll have a some posts over the next few days.

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I agree, but the flag is a representation of our country (ie the PEOPLE) not the government. The people are under attack from their government and flying an upside down flag is a signal of the distress the people are under because of this attack. It is the appropriate response.

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No flag burning. Fly it upside down instead.

Don't worry. I'm sure Mike likes to burn his American flags upside down. I suspect he has a little soap box that he stands on while screaming at the moon and waiving a copy of the Constitution. And then he has a snack. Cookies and milk.

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The government has sunk billions possibly trillions over time into these spying capabilities. They will not willingly give that up. While protests say it isn't acceptable by the people, it won't magically cause it to all go away. There's too many nuts in Washington on the bandwagon supporting the police state.

It's time for the reps to show that their budget cutting is not all just words and get some sanity into the budgeting process. Cutting social services during the times of economic disaster isn't the way to go. The savings are barely noticeable in national spending. Here's where a difference can really be made.

For the Dems, you have left your base support behind. What you say you support and what your actions are saying are different things. Obama won't have a third term but right now I am questioning whether either party deserves their incumbents to continue to serve.

This insanity has gone on long enough and I think we now know why Homeland security, DOJ, IRS, and Social Services have been buying all the ammunition. They've seen the day coming when this could no longer be hidden and that day has arrived. This buying of ammunition tells me no plans are made to change things but rather to fight to prevent it.

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Wow Mike, why are there no new posts?
What a lazy bum - you think you're entitled to vacation?

As we all know, only the uber 1% are allowed such privileges, (and cops who break the law). The rest of us are required to sweat and toil for our sustenance.

And those of you bitching about being paid with fee laden debit cards - better just suck it up cause there are plenty of unemployed waiting in line for your menial job. It's a shame those jobs can not be off shored like all the rest.

Damn middle class folks, they think they drive the economy with their buying - oh please ... the economy will recover just fine without their buying, just you wait and see - it won't be long now ... anytime ... soon ... it will - really !

4th amendment doesn't mean you can hide everything

The current situation is pretty much better balanced than it has been. I think most of the online people are upset because the government has caught up, and is now using many of the same tools that companies like Google use to sell ads. They know more about you by harvesting all the publicly available information, as well as third party information that the courts have allowed.

It's more unreasonable to assume that you can hide you public activities behind the 4th. If you couldn't do it AFK, then you shouldn't be able to do it online. Adding "on the internet" doesn't suddenly make something private.

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"It's more unreasonable to assume that you can hide you public activities behind the 4th."

This is a false dichotomy: the presumption that a person does something in private has got something to hide.

People are entitled to the expectation of privacy, including with regard to their communications. The government has taken it upon itself to pry into American citizens' personal activity on an unprecedented level, without probable cause.

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This is a false dichotomy: the presumption that a person does something in private has got something to hide.

Not at all correct. The question isn't some assumption that they have something to hide, rather that they are doing online what would be considered "public" in any other circumstance, and suddenly expect it to be private.

Handing a note to a third party and having them give it to someone else (or a group of someone elses) doesn't make it private.

Posting on Facebook, even if you make it "private" isn't really private.

You are trying to act like I offered up an "either or" choice that does not matter. The point is only if you are going to yell across a crowded room to someone, it's public - doing the same thing online doesn't magically make it private.

The American government is doing only what technology allows. The one thing I learned from Techdirt is that if technology allows something, it must be okay. If they are not specifically violating your personal rights, they are just being EFFICIENT. Sucks when the government is taking lessons from Google.

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There is a big difference. Google collects information voluntarily given to THEM as a part of using their service. People have a choice to use a different service if they like that doesn't collect such data. The government isn't voluntarily given anything.

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Texts and private instant messages are private. There is a reasonable expectation of privacy when you send a text message or private instant message. If people did not reasonably expect these to be private, then the word sexting would not have come into existence and end up in the dictionary.

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If you want to debate whether online activity is private, then maybe you should address that topic, as it is not cut and dried nor set in concrete. Simply waiving your hands does not make your opinion the law of the land.

I'm relatively certain that big business does not consider their emails and financial transactions to be public, what exactly is different about the same thing being performed by an individual? Seems corporations have more rights than people ... oh wait - they are people, with more rights than non corporation people.

I am not forced to use Gmail, HR Block, BOA, MC, etc ... and they do not get a free pass when it comes to privacy either. They think they can get away with it because the AG/DA are all in on it with them, this doesn't make it right and being their mouthpiece should leave a bad taste in your mouth, you getting paid?

The only way our fucked up government will stop their illegal actions is if we the american people get off our asses which means stop fapping to porn/obsessing over bieber-*insert celeb*/playing CoD, get some weapons and force them to stop or we spill some blood, obviously theirs.
Petitions, paper or online, will not work. They can say they won't redirect money to their bank accounts or spy on us anymore but their actions don't have to match their words.
I cannot celebrate a american holiday anymore knowing wall st, trump, romney and their partners in crime get away with large crimes while am 18 yr old goes to jail over a fake death threat towards kids.

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The problem with a violent uprising is that it would give them justification to use violence themselves. Any manner of uprising would have to be done in a manner of civil disobedience, i.e. refusal to work, pay taxes, etc. Only after all other avenues have been exhausted would resistance become necessary.

Nonstop until the NSA is disbanded and all spying programs are ended, the military size and budget cut in half, all money (both private and corporate) is removed from all political arenas, corporate personhood is revoked, major copyright reform is enacted, the illegal actions against Kim Dotcom, Bradley Manning, and Ed Snowden are ended and all charges are dropped, all those on Wall Street involved in the collapse of the economy are prosecuted and imprisoned, a serious investigation is begun into the legacy entertainment industries and their illegal financial and legal practices is begun and those responsible are tried and imprisoned, DC's entire two-faced nature is exposed and admitted to publicly on air, the revolving door between politicians and corporations is closed for all time, and other issues we deal with here are seriously addressed.

When I say picket, I mean as in tens of thousands—perhaps even hundreds of thousands—of people surrounding both buildings in peaceful, nonviolent protest but refusing to leave until all the above conditions are met. People within the crowd would come and go as their time and schedules permit, but the crowd itself would remain in place at all times, ever-changing but ever-present. If the crowd is sizable enough, it could perhaps deny access to and from the buildings to anyone and everyone, forcing the issues to be addressed more quickly.

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I wouldn't go so far as to say the NSA needs to be disbanded. What needs to happen is for key people that are in charge and responsible like Alexander and Clapper to be removed and held accountable sending the clear message that these sorts of violations will not be tolerated.

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I wouldn't go so far as to say the NSA needs to be disbanded.

It is the simpler and most effective solution. Disband it and start over recognizing what went wrong, use proper oversight and determine what the rules are this time before you do it. Take your licks and accept the horrific waste of cash invested in the failed NSA as a learning experience; an expensive education. This time, do it right.

Just cutting off its heads (Alexander and Clapper) won't change much. An org that size will have built up a lot of inertia that needs to be overcome.

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Possibly. However it might be possible to replace those responsible, hold them accountable, then bring the organization under a Congrssional oversight with a mandate for transparency and a defined course of punitive action for violation of the public trust.

Occupy Wall Street was the same idea with less people. They were protesting and non-violent. What happened? The cops created their own violence as an excuse to go in with force.

The FBI called them terrorists and put them in the databank to find out what they were doing, where they came from, and everyone with a cell phone was tracked. Houston had plans drawn up to place snipers with silencers to 'take out the leaders'.

Oh, forgot to mention, the FBI held daily meetings to co-ordinate response across the nation with the cops, pretty much giving them a laid out plan on how to 'crack the nut' of non-violence so they could act. Oakland to NYC got the same briefings.

Oakland just lost a court case over the injuries that were done by the cops in court. 12 that brought the case will share something like $1 million dollar award from the court.

We fire off fireworks because of the imprisonment of the poet lawyer Francis Scott Key. During the War of 1812, Key, accompanied by the British Prisoner Exchange Agent Colonel John Stuart Skinner, dined aboard the British ship HMS Tonnant, as the guests of three British officers: Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane, Rear Admiral George Cockburn, and Major General Robert Ross. Skinner and Key were there to negotiate the release of prisoners, one of whom was Dr. William Beanes, a resident of Upper Marlboro, Maryland who had been arrested after putting rowdy stragglers under citizen's arrest. Skinner, Key, and Beanes were not allowed to return to their own sloop because they had become familiar with the strength and position of the British units and with the British intent to attack Baltimore. As a result of this, Key was unable to do anything but watch the bombarding of the American forces at Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore on the night of September 13–14, 1814.

Your last post [Today Is July 4th; And It's Time To Restore The 4th Amendment] was freaking awesome. I have gone ahead and added your stuff to my Feedly account. Please keep me updated if you post anywhere else.

Just like SOPA...

The constitution gives the states the ability to call for a constitutional convention in which state leadership gets together to modify the constitution without the interference of the federal government. You only need to push your state legislatures to file the requests.

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Okay, guess what? I posted a comment, with just those words, Mike's Greatest Hits. As I fully expected, the comment was held in moderation.

Now, before you rush off and get your knickers in a twist, that was all the comment had, just those three words. Accordingly, the spam filters recognised it as spam, as a meaningless comment that doesn't advance the conversation in any way, and so, held it. If Mike is indeed censoring his "critics" (and no, you are not a critic, real critics actually make decent arguments), then he's censoring those who support him too.
I mean come on, you're not being censored. Your post is still up there for everyone to see. They only get held in moderation if it's far too short (three words), contain only a link, etc.

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Funny because Mike isn't at the office, he and his crew are taking two days off...? Yeah, how dare Pirate Mike not stay glued to his keyboard and respond to every single one of your comments, what do you think you're paying him for (you're not!)

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It's a forum, post your discussion of the merits now and Mike can respond later, and then you can respond sometime after that. Wow, this internet thing facilitates conversation on the merits really well, doesn't it?

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You were just critical of Mike. As in, just now. Yet your post is still there, visible for anybody to read. So...when is he going to start censoring you again?

Maybe...just maybe, if Mike actually is blocking TOR nodes, he does it for reasons that have nothing to do with censorship. I've heard horror stories of people operating TOR nodes and then being raided by police for child porn charges.

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I don't know if it's a spam filter or "chinese dictator" tactics, but the quality and maturity of discourse has been massively improved in the brief time your bullshit has been kept off the site, so it's definitely not "futile". Whatever it was, it was highly effective, and I hope it shuts you up again soon. Think of it as a "you must be at least this grown up to ride" sign at the gate.

the brain initiative = the great deception

I am a victim of "the brain initiative". It is the great deception. Law enforcement are implanting everyone with radio frequency communication chips aka nerve stimulators or wireless in-body antennas. In Virginia, state and local police give you three options: 1) be put in a stabilization ward and be tortured, 2) be put in jail and be tortured, or 3) be infected with an infectious disease. They have tried the first two and are threatening the third. The chip is protruding from my cancer surgery scars. Even though it was implanted without my knowledge and consent by Dr. Lawrence Chang of Pariser Dermatology, surgeons refuse to remove it. It uses technologies like the audio spotlight by Holosonics. They bombard your mind with obscenities, cursing, and all manner of evil things. Wireless tazing with lasers that come through the electrical outlets - see network world (hacking your computer through elctrical outlets). The Army at Picatinny created a laser induced plasma channel and steered lightening at a target. Police use lasers and steer electricity at my mind, body, heart, and private parts. State Trooper Jared Vance informed everyone they come through the electronics in your home. They use radio frequency software, lasers, and millimeter wave transmitters to create holograms and tap into your mind seeing through your eyes what your brain sees and hearing what you hear. (See The Mind Weapon by DARPA scientists). It is a microchip implant initiative to enable law enforcement ubiquitous surveillance. See Safeguards in a World of Ambient Intelligence by Springer to learn about the project. The Verizon phone records are to clone the sim card in your phone with the sim card in your body. At least the European Union is trying to inform their public and protect them. After everyone is defamed, defrauded, unemployable, crippled and suffering, who takes care of us. Will there be indentured servitude? Even the Federal District Court Judge knew I was in excruciating pain (according to her own clerk of courts) and she refused to grant a motion for cessation of torture. This is the weapon of the anti-Christ and the mark of the beast. These law enforcement officers are criminals and do not uphold the Constitution, the state statute banning implantation of chips, and federal statute banning torture. People need to read about these new weapons. (See Mental Illness and Terrorism: New weapons mimic mental health disease). See forbes.com and search Brandon Raub. Virginia has one of the highest suicide rates in the country! Check out Brian Castner's book The Long Walk - our vets are being tortured into suicide. In it he says, "This is my new life. It's intolerable." I never served in the war, but I know how he feels. I am no longer free to live my life. I am enduring it.